A Career in Motion: TCI Graduate Finds His Fit at LEGOLAND

Johnny Gracia starts his workday at 3 a.m., long before the gates open at LEGOLAND California.

As a rides engineer, he troubleshoots mechanical and electrical problems, fabricates parts, and helps make sure the park’s rides are ready for thousands of guests. It’s technical, hands-on work — and a career Gracia says he wouldn’t have without MiraCosta College’s Technology Career Institute, or TCI.

“I want to say 100%,” Gracia said when asked whether his training helped him land the job. “The welding, machining, automation training, robotics and electromechanical troubleshooting — they’re all applicable to the job.”

TCI provides accelerated, hands-on training designed to prepare students for careers in skilled and technical fields. Through programs including welding, machining and engineering technology, students gain practical experience using equipment and solving the kinds of problems they can expect to encounter on the job.

For Gracia, TCI became a place to build more than technical skills. It helped him discover what he was capable of and opened the door to a career he hadn’t imagined for himself.

Gracia became a parent at a young age and left school before finishing. Years later, he attended Vista Adult School and began thinking more seriously about how he could build a career with greater opportunity for advancement for himself and his family. That search led him to TCI.

He started with welding and found a welding job while he was still enrolled, giving him the chance to immediately put what he was learning into practice. From there, he continued into TCI’s Engineering Technician program and later studied machining, building a combination of skills that would ultimately prove valuable in his current career.

Gracia describes himself as a hands-on learner, and TCI gave him opportunities to move quickly from learning a concept to testing it with real equipment.

“That’s the best part of it,” he said. “You get to put it into perspective right there on the spot.”

With each new skill came something else Gracia hadn’t necessarily expected: a growing belief that he could do this work — and do it well.

Building Skills and Confidence

Gracia remembers entering the Engineering Technician program, questioning whether he could master some of the material. One of his TCI mentors encouraged him to work through those doubts.

“She was like, ‘You can do this,’” Gracia recalled. “It’s all a matter of perspective, and if you can see yourself doing it, then you can do it.”

As he completed projects and began understanding increasingly complex concepts, his confidence grew.

“You start understanding it more and more, and you’re like, ‘Oh, I can do this,’” he said. “It’s not as hard as I made it out to be.”

Gracia credits TCI instructors not only with teaching technical skills, but with helping students become stronger problem-solvers.

Rather than simply providing an answer when a student encountered a challenge, instructors would ask what they had already tried and encourage them to continue troubleshooting.

“They helped you dig deep within yourself to get that answer,” he said. “So you become more self-sufficient at the end of it.”

Putting His Training to Work

After completing his TCI training, Gracia was determined to find a position that made use of his new skills and offered the career growth he was seeking. He soon found that opportunity at LEGOLAND.

At LEGOLAND, no two days are quite the same. He may troubleshoot a ride, address an electrical issue or fabricate a part needed for a repair. The variety, as well as the opportunity to continually solve new problems, is part of what he enjoys most.

“I love it,” Gracia said.

There’s another benefit to those early mornings. Gracia typically finishes his shift around 11:30 a.m., giving him much of the day to spend with his family.

And having a parent who works at LEGOLAND comes with some added excitement for his 5-year-old daughter.

“Every time I pick her up, she’s like, ‘Hey, are we going to LEGOLAND?’” he said.

It’s a small moment, but one that reflects how much has changed since Gracia first began looking for a way to build new skills and create more opportunities for himself.

He encourages people considering TCI, particularly those who aren’t sure what type of career they want, to give themselves the chance to explore what they might be good at — or discover something they never pictured themselves doing.

“You never know what you’re going to like,” he said.

For Gracia, that willingness to try something new led to a job he enjoys — and a new sense of what he is capable of.

He knows from experience that getting there isn’t always easy. But that, he said, shouldn’t stop someone from trying.

“Nothing’s ever easy,” he said. “But as long as you have the ambition to grow, follow through, finish the class and find that outcome you’re looking for, then it’ll happen.”